A planned new 80,000 member union is set to become the largest representative of staff in the public sector.

Special Needs Assistants have voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action.

Workers who vote to reject the widely accepted new public sector pay deal may be frozen out of pay increases and other benefits and face financial penalties, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has warned.

The IMPACT trade union says we need better early intervention for children with special needs.

One of the country's largest public sector unions is backing the Lansdowne Road 2 pay deal.

The chances of the new public service pay deal being passed by the trade union movement has been given a boost after the Siptu executive decided to recommend acceptance to its members.

One of the country’s largest trade unions has voiced fears over the ongoing public sector pay talks, claiming that government plans would reduce incomes, rather than restore them.

Dublin City Council has asked the Workplace Relations Commission to intervene in the Dublin Fire Brigade dispute.

Public service trade unions have welcomed the €38.33 fortnightly “down payment” for their members as a result of the Government’s decision to bring forward pay increases from April, but have warned that much more will be expected in a new deal later this year.

Public-sector employees are being urged to work together to restore their pay.

The Union of Students Ireland (USI) will hold a national day of protest today to put pressure on the Government to find a long-term, publicly financed solution to third-level education funding.

IMPACT and Siptu trade unions, representing residential care staff at the Oberstown campus, will attend a meeting with management today.

150 staff members at the State's only youth detention centre will walk off the job today.

Several unions look set to test the mettle of the minority Government on pay issues, writes Kyran Fitzgerald.

Hundreds took to the streets of Dublin city earlier today to call for urgent action on the homeless crisis.

Staff at Childminding Ireland are set to begin indefinite strike action from next month unless management withdraws compulsory redundancy notices, according to trade union representatives.

The manager of Oberstown Children Detention Campus has said riot gear for staff is not the answer to issues at the facility as workers veer towards possible industrial action.

The Department of Social Protection has strongly defended the JobBridge scheme amid calls for it to be scrapped.

The number of people dropping out of the Government’s JobBridge national internship programme early each year is almost as high as those who are completing the scheme, figures show.

ÉAMONN CEANNT is, in many ways, the ‘unknown’ man among the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising, and the signatories to the proclamation of the Irish Republic.

Community and voluntary sector organisations supporting some of the most disadvantaged in society are facing a difficulty in maintaining services without an immediate improvement in funding mechanisms.

The Public Services Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has voted to approve the Lansdowne Road Agreement.

A select group of local authority workers are set to lose the ‘rain’ allowance they have been receiving for lifting bins in wet weather.

The Lansdowne Road agreement on public service pay has been given another boost after a third trade union voted to accept the contents of the deal.

A possible strike by special needs assistants (SNAs) has been averted by new rules giving those employed part-time a better chance of extra hours in schools.

Impact, the largest trade union representative of staff at Aer Lingus, has written to Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe warning that assurances about job security in the event of the airline being sold are “worthless”.

Upcoming talks on pay restoration in the public service must recognise the productivity given by staff and must not come at the expense of further changes to terms and conditions of employment, a senior trade union figure insisted.

Teachers have been head-butted, kicked, punched, spat at, and suffered broken bones as attacks in the classroom become more frequent and violent.

More than 800 special needs assistants (SNAs) were paid at least five days late last week because of another payroll problem at the Department of Education.

Unions representing workers at Aer Lingus are due to brief their shop stewards at the airline today and tomorrow to further clarify their stance on the proposed takeover of the airline by aviation group IAG.

A senior trade union official says IAG will have to "do a lot" to convince members to back their bid for Aer Lingus.

One in four Aer Lingus workers could lose their jobs if the airline is taken over by IAG, unions have claimed.

Up to 1,200 jobs could be lost at Aer Lingus if the airline is sold to IAG, according to the IMPACT trade union.

We are, it seems, on the very cusp of indulging in the kind of self-destructive behaviour and delusion that helped write the script — partially at least — for our economic collapse.

A group of council workers have been awarded an "eating on site allowance" after winning a battle with Dublin City Council.

Staff have been told they must hand in receipts for clothing destroyed in a hospital flood — a year after the incident.

Members of the IMPACT trade union in the Limerick group of hospitals will from today refuse to co-operate with their chief operations manager in a row over his salary.

Six hundred workers in South Dublin County Council are downing tools today in a row over pay cuts.

Management and the IMPACT trade union have accepted Labour Court recommendations - to resolve the dispute.

Two one-day strikes are planned by South Dublin County Council workers later this month.

The Labour Court will issue recommendations today aimed at resolving the dispute over rosters at Aer Lingus.

Strike action by cabin crew at Aer Lingus, which was due to take place next Monday and Tuesday, has been deferred.